Three years ago, Congress raised the age requirement for tobacco products from 18 to 21 in order to make America a little healthier.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) championed the change, which he said would help “stem the tide of early nicotine addiction among youth in Kentucky and across the nation.”
Though the tobacco industry embraced the change as an alternative to more aggressive measures, it was still a policy shift that showed Congress could take decisive action to protect public health.
But after two teenagers in New York and Texas legally purchased firearms in order to slaughter more than 30 people for fun — and despite the fact that gun injuries are the leading cause of death among children – it’s unlikely Congress will make it illegal to sell guns to teenagers anytime soon.
“I don’t yet know exactly what’s possible, whether the votes are there to raise the age, but we’re having a discussion about what we do about that specific profile. And it’s an encouraging conversation,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Murphy is spearheading a renewed round of bipartisan negotiation in the Senate that is focusing on narrowly tailored gun control measures, including proposals to bolster school security, enhance background checks and incentivize states to pass “red flag” laws that allow authorities to temporarily seize firearms from people who have been determined to be a danger to themselves or others.
It’s not clear yet which, if any, of these measures can gain at least 10 Republican votes to pass in the evenly divided Senate. Many Republicans told HuffPost last week they disliked the idea of raising the age requirement — or doing anything at all.
